This 8-week course will cover the fundamentals of adapting students’ own stories into video games. Students can expect to learn character creation, storytelling, dialogue, animation, and combat encounters. This will be accomplished by adapting tabletop RPG (role-playing game) rules into their game and translating them into RPG Maker MZ. This course takes students beyond a YouTube tutorial and will have them to create their own adventures. Students will cover all aspects of game mechanics and how to adapt them into their game while guiding them through their own stories. Students won’t just design a game; they will get to design *their* game.
All students will receive the current version of Misfit Adventure’s Game Master Guide, Monster Manual, and Video Game Conversion Guide.
In addition to the course instruction on Mondays, there is a weekly lab to deepen the learning and hands-on experience on Thursday evenings.
Please note, students do have graded assignments, assessments, and projects and will receive a final grade in this course. Grades demonstrate a student’s ability to apply their understanding and mastery of concepts taught in this course. Trilith Institute instructors have a wealth of knowledge as they come with expertise in the film and entertainment industry
Course Note: No Prerequisite Required.
*Those receiving a grade of 80 (B) or above in the course will receive a “Certificate of Completion”. Complete 3 of the Trilith Institute’s Professional Education Courses, and you will receive “Trilith Institute Outstanding Achievement in Film Arts.” In addition, if you have completed 3 courses and our Mastering Self-Marketing workshop, you will be eligible to submit an original project for consideration for our Creative Excellence Fellowship Grant, with a potential award of up to $10,000.
Questions? Check out our FAQ page.
Course Developer and Instructor – Harman Lindsey
Harman Lindsey is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from West Point in 2014 and served in the U.S. Army for eight years before with Activision Blizzard. Harman went on to attend Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and earned his M.B.A. in 2024. While serving, Harman taught himself coding and game design as a fun way to learn new skills for a career transition from the Army. While in business school, Misfit Adventure was born, as a way to teach and reinforce the blend of technology skills with communication that come with video games.
Misfit Adventure’s Program: The Misfit Adventure blends technology skills and communication skills. This program is for anyone at all technical levels interested in completing a video game from inception to publishing. The goal is to have a functional video game uploaded from start to finish. This is accomplished through Misfit Adventure’s trademarked game Turmoil of Trolls. Playing the dice version of the game, students learn and practice communicating a story and adventure. They then learn how to program the game and the rules in either as they go or after the adventure. By the end students will learn how to upload their functional video game to video game sites like Steam and itch.io.
The Trilith Institute 365 Fund supports all aspects of the 501(c)(3) organization.
$250 pays for a single episode of the Trilith Institute Talks podcast.
$500 feeds cast and crew for one Creative Excellence Fellowship Grant film
$650 provides a one-week scholarship to the Script to Screen Summer Camp
$1000 covers a Dinner With… events where students talk with industry experts over dinner
No amount is too big or small.